Liam Neeson the gritty action hero. How unbelievable that at nearly 60 years old, an actor can redefine his career and become more bankable. Neeson has somehow re-channeled the seriousness he brought to dramatic roles into creating utterly convincing heroes in decent (at best) thrillers.

But that's not "The Grey." "The Grey" earns marks far above decent, and Neeson's performance makes it better. I know, the calendar clearly reads January, but that's a matter of maximizing box-office potential in this case. Writer/director Joe Carnahan ("The A-Team") has turned a new leaf in this harrowing wilderness survival thriller, a film as dedicated to exploring the true extent of the human will to live as much as shocking its audience with menacing wolf attacks.

Neeson leads the pack in all manner of ways. Paid to protect oil workers from nature's dangers (especially wolves),Neeson's character Ottway turns out to be a group of drillers' best chance for survival when their plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness near a wolf den. He's far from a boy scout, however, and he's emotionally wounded by the past as evidenced by visions of his wife.

Most of the early indicators in the film give you the sense that Neeson will do his usual solemn-faced hero routine that he executes to perfection, but the way the film unfolds (not in terms of plot, but in terms of the quality of the storytelling) asks him to go beyond that. He definitely responds.

When looked at in its most fundamental form, "The Grey" could be considered just another film in which a group of imperiled people die one at a time en route to finding safety. Carnahan, however, slows down that pace so that we can absorb the extent of the danger and imagine ourselves in it. When death does occur, it's visually striking, jaw-dropping and/or thought-provoking as compared to standard efforts at the genre that involve only jump-scare deaths or death by character stupidity.

Only one character, Diaz (Frank Grillo) gets a stereotype as the stubborn self-centered jerk who disagrees with Ottway on purpose. Most movies would've killed him off before he got too annoying, but Carnahan and co-writer Ian Mackenzie Jeffers (who wrote the short story the film's based on),have more interesting plans in store for him.

It's also not just a film about people being hunted by wolves in the wilderness. There's no bloody man vs. wolf climactic battle, unlike what the trailers would have you believe, so film fans prone to take misleading marketing out on the film itself, be prepared. "The Grey" is much more of a suspenseful drama with high-adrenaline scenes lurking around every corner.

As such, the visual style of "The Grey" asks for something different from Carnahan than the over-the-top high-flying nature of his previous two films, "The A-Team" and "Smokin' Aces." The overall tone is gritty and naturalistic, so snow-caked beards without the blistering frostbite makeup.

The action is also more frenetic and gripping. Rather than shooting the action scenes in a traditional sense, he wants the viewer to feel as if they are experiencing them along with the characters. If a character falls from a tree top and hits 20 branches on the way down, that's exactly what the camera's doing. This maximizes the intensity of every major sequence. As for the wolves, they're horrifying, yet never painted as the bad guys. They're just part of nature.

When it comes to issues of faith and the will to survive, that's when "The Grey" really jumps up and above the bar for its genre. The story is told in such a way that when people die, it's not for our entertainment, but to highlight the unpredictable nature of ... nature, and life and death. As Ottway wrestles with these same issues, its Neeson's performance that makes it hit home.

"The Grey" gives its audience the rare gift of genre-film entertainment with some serious food for thought and an ample dose of emotion. Carnahan's choices on how to tell the story, along with an ending not typical of genre films, only make it all the stronger. Both he and Neeson display the true nature of their strengths. Hopefully we've seen only the beginning of Carnahan's potential, and that nature is kind enough to Neeson to let him continue challenging the norm for the standard heroic performance.

~Steven C

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THE GREY boasts nothing new in its depiction of a team of plane survivors struggling to survive in the freezing wilderness as they find themselves picked off one by one by both the elements and a pack of ravenous wolves, but it does have a strictly non-Hollywood vibe going on which makes it more than watchable.

This is a tough survivalist thriller boasting another hard-man turn from ageing action star Liam Neeson, once again playing it taciturn as a guy who finds himself forced to pit his wits against Mother Nature. As expected, there are the usual expendable characters in the cast list who find themselves getting bumped off one by one either by chance or through their own errors, and such formats are always easy to digest for viewers who want to switch off their brains for a couple of hours.

Director Joe Carnahan certainly directs his snow backdrops well, and there's a level of gritty realism to the whole thing which gives it an edge over rival products; it's also a huge step up from Carnahan's previous movie, the execrable A-TEAM. It might be slightly too depressing and pessimistic to fully enjoy it as a movie, but for the most part THE GREY does everything right.

Oil workers in Alaska are flying home when suddenly their plane crashes. There are seven survivors and the wolves start to approach. Outdoors hunter John Ottway (Liam Neeson) leads the group into the forest to escape the predators.

It's a pretty good intense simple chase movie at the start. The premise seems easy and holds plenty of potential. There are a few too many slow spots for me and it loses momentum. The actors do a solid job especially Neeson. The story has too many unrealistic moments. All too often they seem to run unrealistically fast in deep snow ahead of the wolves. The wolves should easily catch them out in the open. There is a great section where the wolves attack at night. My expectations were high and it's a little disappointing.